Pilots
Real-world pilots for real-world disinformation challenges
ECHO will implement five thematic pilots that act as real-world laboratories for understanding, detecting, and countering disinformation. These pilots are designed around sectors where misleading information can have serious consequences for society, public trust, health, democracy, and civic participation.
The pilots will be implemented across Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and Cyprus, reflecting different social, cultural, political, and institutional contexts. This diversity allows ECHO to test solutions in realistic environments and develop results that can be adapted and reused across Europe.
Pilot 1: Public Payroll and Public Administration
Enhancing trust in public payroll services through an LLM-powered knowledge exchange platform
This pilot focuses on public administration and public sector employees. It will develop a knowledge exchange platform supported by Large Language Model technologies to help users verify and understand information related to public payroll, taxation, deductions, and administrative updates.
The pilot addresses the problem of confusing or misleading financial and payroll-related information that circulates through online forums, social media, and unofficial sources. By providing clear explanations grounded in verified data, the pilot aims to improve transparency, reduce misinformation, and strengthen trust in public services.
Pilot 2: Healthcare Disinformation
Strengthening democracy and health through disinformation awareness
This pilot focuses on healthcare workers, patients, and citizens. It addresses false or misleading health information, including misinformation spread through media, social platforms, and AI-generated content.
Activities will include mapping healthcare disinformation trends, developing educational material, training healthcare workers, testing detection techniques, and creating public awareness campaigns. The pilot aims to help healthcare professionals act both as beneficiaries and multipliers of accurate, evidence-based information.
Pilot 3: Citizen Resilience and Municipal Engagement
Empower, Detect, Protect: a citizen-led approach to disinformation resilience
This pilot focuses on citizens across age groups, with special emphasis on local civic engagement and youth participation. Supported by the Municipality of Thessaloniki and the Municipal Youth Council, it will organise workshops, interactive seminars, gamified activities, media literacy challenges, and public debates.
Participants will learn how to assess source credibility, cross-check information, recognise AI-generated misinformation, and identify emotional manipulation or polarisation tactics. The pilot will also support intergenerational dialogue, helping younger and older citizens exchange experiences and build shared resilience.
Pilot 4: Media Integrity and Citizen Engagement
Strengthening media integrity through disinformation detection
This pilot focuses on media, journalism, political transparency, advocacy, and citizen participation. Led by organisations with expertise in investigative journalism, civic oversight, and public accountability, it will support journalists and citizens in detecting and responding to disinformation.
Activities will include mapping disinformation trends in political and media discourse, training journalists and citizens, developing fact-checking resources, promoting public awareness, and addressing legal threats such as SLAPPs. The pilot aims to strengthen independent journalism, public trust, and responsible civic dialogue.
Pilot 5: Fact-checking and Responsible AI Use
Empowering the fact-checking community and training audiences on responsible AI
This pilot focuses on fact-checkers, citizens, researchers, and media actors. It responds to the growing complexity of AI-generated hallucinations, synthetic content, biased outputs, and polluted datasets.
The pilot will provide training, collaborative validation methods, curated datasets, disinformation detection prototypes, and guidelines for identifying AI-generated falsehoods. It will help fact-checkers and wider communities adapt to emerging AI-related disinformation risks while protecting democratic values, privacy, and freedom of expression.